From the Vault: St. Anthony Hotel dressed up for V.I.P.

As you may have read this week, the St. Anthony Hotel has gone into foreclosure and is set for auction Aug. 3. The news sent me into the files…

I found first a copy of this old photo. All I knew was that it was the St. Anthony pictured sometime between 1909 and 1913. Given the bunting, the flags and multiple pictures of the same man prominently posted, I figured someone had come for a visit — perhaps the President of the U.S.

After some more digging in the files, I found the original in a different folder. Someone had written on the back that it was taken during the visit of President William Howard Taft, but no date (given that his term was 1909-1913, that explains the date range on the copy I first found). By the way, if you look closely, you’ll see the streaks of white paint applied to the white portions of some of the bunting to make it stand out more clearly in the dark newsprint reproduction. We commonly come across early photos similarly altered.

Further research produced a date for the visit: October 17, 1909, which was the same year the hotel opened. Taft was on a tour and following the Sunset line; he had already stopped in El Paso. According to the Light on October 17, he had visited three years earlier when he was secretary of war. While the president was in town, he also laid the cornerstone of the Gift Chapel at the “army post,” aka Fort Sam Houston.

I found the photo itself — published with one of the courthouse — in the Express‘ coverage on October 17, accompanied by this caption:

“These two pictures, the top one the St. Anthony Hotel, where President Taft will have his home while in San Antonio, and the lower, the county court house, give an idea of how San Antonio has decorated for the President’s visit. The streets in the business section are long vistas of red, white and blue. There are many flags displayed, large and small, and the amount of bunting, if laid out, would run up a surprising total in the number of yards.”

On the same page is a story about our town getting smarted up for the visit, including this passage, which also describes our photo: “Thousands of flags cover the walls of the St. Anthony Hotel, and the sides of the hotel are draped with long streamers of bunting.”

The St. Anthony would become the hotel for important guests, and Taft was just an early entry on the list. From the Light, October 18, 1909: “[The president’s motorcade] continued on to the St. Anthony hotel where the president was greeted by F.W. Swearingen, the manager, at the main entrance, who told him to make himself at home, the president bowing his acknowledgement, with a smile.”